KARAJAN OFFICIAL REMASTERED EDITION

July 07, 2014

Karajan gets a ‘second life’ through remastered EMI recordings

A documentary on Arte TV reveals how the maestro wanted to live on through advanced recording technology.

“I would like to cryogenically freeze my body and come back in 25 years. One could redo everything one had done, adapting to the recording techniques of 2015.”

So said Herbert von Karajan shortly before his death on 16 July 1989, in an interview shown as part of the Eric Schulz documentary Karajan: The Second Life.

Twenty-five years on, we have come as close as possible to granting the maestro’s wish. Using the most advanced technology in the world’s most famous studio at Abbey Road London, Warner Classics has remastered his entire recorded output for EMI (1946-84) in 24-bit/96kHz from the original sources. The Karajan Official Remastered Edition enables us to hear 100 discs of Karajan with fresh ears – just as he would have wanted.

“With the discs I recorded, with the music I created,” declared the legendary conductor, “I am eternal.”

Karajan: The Second Life (L’Autre Karajan/Das Zweite Leben) is broadcast on Arte TV in Germany and France on Sunday, 13 July, 17:40 (53 Min.)

The 13 boxed sets of the Karajan Official Remastered Edition are available here.